Jack Farr

William Gordon Farr

(18 October 1889 - 1948?, USA)

'If They Came Back and Did it Over Again To-Day' - Shakespeare

Jack Farr was an early 20th-century U.S. newspaper cartoonist who created several short-lived comic strips. He was born in 1889 as William Gordon Farr in Brooklyn, New York. He was a staff artist at several New York and Boston newspapers, including the Boston Evening Journal and New York World, and eventually the US Feature Service syndicate. During his tenure with the papers, he developed comic strip and cartoon features like 'Little Willie' (1909), 'Mr. Jolt', ' Chubby' (1918-1920), and 'Bringing Up Bill' (1925). Between 17 March and 11 August 1918 he created a newspaper comic strip for the New York Herald, named 'If They Came Back and Did It Over Again Today' (1918). The basic premise of this series revolved around historical characters coping with the present-day world. By the 1930s he was a cartoonist/gag artist for Judge, Life, Ballyhoo, Collier's and Cosmopolitan, among other magazines.

'Little Willie'

He was also present in the comic books of the 1940s, mostly for back-up features in mainly National and Street & Smith books. He created a whole new set of new characters up until the 1950s, including 'Bradley', 'Vitamin Vic', 'Donny the Dreamer', 'Gadget Man', 'Iron Munro', 'Romeo the Robot' and 'Three-Ring Binks', among many other characters. His death date is uncertain and might've been 1948.